AP Psychology – Unit 4 Practice Test

1. At a faculty party Dr. Sanchez is attentively listening to Dr. Chen talk about her latest
research on facial recognition, when he suddenly becomes aware of someone mentioning his
name on the other side of the room. This phenomenon is known as:

A) inattentional blindness.
B) change blindness.
C) the cocktail party effect.
D) blindsight.
E) iconic memory.

2. In a now-classic study by Simons and Chabris (1999), study participants watched two teams
pass a basketball among teammates. One team was wearing white shirts and the other was
wearing black shirts. Participants were told to count how many times the team wearing the white
shirts passed the basketball, thereby directing their attention to the white shirts and ignoring the
black shirts. Interestingly, more than half of the study participants failed to notice when a man
wearing a black gorilla suit walked right past the two teams. This phenomenon is known as:

A) change blindness.
B) inattentional blindness.
C) the cocktail party effect.
D) blindsight.
E) iconic memory.

3. Janis volunteered to participate in a psychology experiment. When she arrives at the lab, a lab
assistant standing on the other side of a counter greets her. The lab assistant explains the
informed consent procedure and asks her to sign the form. As the lab assistant reaches for the
form he drops it behind the counter. He drops down behind the counter to pick up the form, but,
unbeknownst to Janis, another person stands up holding the form. After Janis signs the form, she
is asked if she noticed the change. She replies that she did not. This phenomenon is known as:

A) inattentional blindness.
B) change blindness.
C) the cocktail party effect.
D) blindsight.
E) visual interaction.
4. Without fail, when you are talking to your best friend about something important, she
continues to check her phone and watch for people she knows. Nevertheless, she seems able to
listen attentively and respond appropriately to what you are saying. This type of behavior is
evidence of:

A) social influence theory.

5. Drivers detect traffic signals more slowly if they are talking on a cell phone. This best
illustrates the impact of

A) choice blindness.
B) selective attention.
C) prosopagnosia.
D) the pop-out phenomenon.
E) parallel processing.

6. If you move your watchband up your wrist an inch or so, you will feel it for only a few
moments. This best illustrates

A) parallel processing.
B) accommodation.
C) sensory adaptation.
D) Weber’s law.
E) kinesthesis.

7. The opponent-process theory is most useful for explaining a characteristic of

A) phantom limb sensations.

8. Damage to the basilar membrane is most likely to affect one’s

9. Your sense of the position and movement of your body parts is called

A) audition.
B) kinesthesis.
C) synesthesia.
D) olfactation.
E) the vestibular sense.

10. The way in which you quickly group the individual letters in this test item into separate
words best illustrates the principle of

A) closure.
B) proximity.
C) interposition.
D) perceptual constancy.
E) accommodation.

11. The fact that we recognize objects as having a consistent form regardless of changing
viewing angles illustrates

A) interposition.
B) the phi phenomenon.
C) perceptual constancy.
D) the McGurk effect.
E) retinal disparity.

12. Carla has lost vision in her left eye. Which of the following depth cues will she be unable to
use?

A) Linear position
B) Retinal disparity
C) Relative size
D) Relative motion
E) Relative height

13. The central focal point in the retina where cones are heavily concentrated is known as the
A) lens.
B) optic nerve.
C) cornea.
D) fovea.
E) iris.

14. Most people miss someone in a gorilla or clown suit while their attention is rooted
elsewhere. This best demonstrates

A) change blindness.
B) parallel processing.
C) transduction.
D) displacement.
E) inattentional blindness.

15. The knowledge of your head and body position is demonstrated by

A) kinesthesis.
B) top-down processing.
C) sensory interaction.
D) the vestibular sense.
E) sensory adaptation.

16. Which of the following is best described as a chemical sense?

A) Hearing
B) Pain
C) Kinesthesis
D) Smell
E) Vision

17. Rules for organizing stimuli into coherent groups were first identified by

A) evolutionary psychologists.
B) behaviorists.
C) Gestalt psychologists.
D) parapsychologists.
E) experimental psychologists.

18. The distance between our right and left eyes functions to provide us with a cue for depth
perception known as
A) proximity.
B) interposition.
C) closure.
D) linear perspective.
E) retinal disparity.

19. Railroad tracks appear to converge in the distance. This provides a cue for depth perception
known as

A) linear perspective.
B) interposition.
C) connectedness.
D) continuity.
E) relative height.

20. A door casts an increasingly trapezoidal image on our retinas as it opens, yet we still
perceive it as rectangular. This illustrates

A) retinal disparity.
B) the Ponzo illusion.
C) shape constancy.
D) linear perspective.
E) the phi phenomenon.

21. Grass seen through sunglasses appears equally as green as it does without glasses. This best
illustrates

A) Weber’s law.
B) sensory interaction.
C) accommodation.
D) color constancy.
E) the McGurk effect.

22. After some practice, Carol was able to read books while holding them upside down. This
best illustrates

A) perceptual constancy.
B) interposition.
C) sensory interaction.
D) linear perspective.
E) perceptual adaptation.

23. Which of the following are considered “chemical” senses?

A) vision and hearing

Answer Key:

1. C 9. B 17. C
2. B 10. B 18. E
3. B 11. C 19. A
4. D 12. B 20. C
5. B 13. D 21. D
6. C 14. E 22. E
7. D 15. D 23. C
8. B 16. D

Unit IV: Sample FRQ Sensation and Perception

Charlie is out in his yard playing baseball with his friends one sunny afternoon when a ball hits
him in the knee. Discuss how each of the following components would affect Charlie’s
sensation and/or perception of this experience:
 Improper functioning of the visual system
 Binocular depth cues
 Attention
 Gate-control theory of pain
 Sensory adaptation

Rubric:
Students should relate responses to each item by directly linking it to Charlie’s experience.
General explanations about these processes without a connection to Charlie’s experience should
not score.
Point 1: Improper functioning of the visual system

Students can discuss any of the following aspects of improper visual system functioning in
relation to Charlie’s experience:
 Misshapen eyeballs causing nearsightedness/farsightedness
 Misshapen lens causing astigmatism
 Damage/disease to any part of the eye (cornea, lens, retina) or visual cortex (occipital
lobe)
 Having the ball fall within Charlie’s blindspot
 Being colorblind (and the team using a colored ball)
 Etc.

NOTE: The answer should discuss how Charlie could not see the ball properly due to improper
functioning of his visual system, which leads to his being hit by the ball. Correct functioning
should not be the main way students discuss this point.

Point 2: Binocular depth cues

Students can discuss how Charlie failed to use or did not properly use binocular depth cues to
avoid being hit by the ball. Students should discuss either convergence issues or retinal
disparity. Examples could include:
 perhaps he had only one functioning eye
 something got in one of his eyes as the ball was coming toward him
 he was focusing on the wrong objects and misjudged the distance

Point 3: Attention

Students should discuss Charlie’s lack of attention being the reason the ball hit him. Students
can discuss this point in terms of the following:
 signal detection (the ball wasn’t a big enough signal for him due to distraction/lack of
attention)
OR
 selective attention (he was paying attention to something else and didn’t hear the sounds
of the ball coming toward him).

Point 4: Gate-control theory of pain

Students should discuss how pain signals are carried on free nerve endings/smaller nerve fibers
and therefore can be gated off in the spinal cord by signals carried on larger nerve fibers that are
directly connected to the sensory receptors. Charlie could ease his pain in his knee somewhat by
stimulating these larger nerve endings (i.e., through pressure to another part of the leg).

Point 5: Sensory adaptation

Students should discuss that, with time, the pain sensations will not be as noticeable due to
sensory adaptation. Charlie’s brain will begin to focus on other, more novel sensations as time
passes. However, students may also point out that he will again feel the pain when he is
reminded of it or when it changes somehow (i.e, when he moves his leg, etc.).